I have to admit that I am a sucker for hardwood floors, but having hardwood flooring installed is expensive. So when my wife and I discovered hardwood floors underneath the carpet of our 1950’s home, we were overjoyed. I mean, “refinishing” an existing hardwood floor is hundreds of dollars cheaper than having new hardwood installed. Sounds pretty peachy am I right? I mean how hard can it be to refinish a hardwood floor? Well, here’s a handful of things that I ran into while I refinished our floors: (more...)

I don’t consider myself to be a shy or introverted person, but when it comes to calling service professionals I become nervous.  I’m not sure why it happens, I just don’t like calling them.  It seems here lately I’ve had many opportunities to face this particular demon head on.  I’m a school teacher, which allows me to have my summers off.  Somehow it seems that all of our home improvements fall during the summer, and obviously I’m the one to handle them seeing as I’m home. (more…)

Sure, everyone has had Gatorade before but I bet you didn’t know that, when used properly, this magical beverage can save you hundreds of dollars a year or more and win you friends for life! I’ve employed this technique many times and it never fails to bump my karma and put money in my pocket. In fact, I’d be willing to bet that I’m on a first name basis with at least one person in any major residential service a homeowner could call upon and I owe it all to Gatorade. (more…)

This beautiful quote by Plato has influenced many of my life philosophies. I’ve even derived another idea from it, “Be kind, for you never know who is a Black Belt!” In all seriousness, this mindful approach to people and life has worked very well for me. Take for example an incident that happened several months ago. (more…)

Quite possibly the worst part about owning a home is keeping up with the yard and flower beds. My raw seething hatred for mowing the grass, edging, weed eating, and weeding is rooted in my childhood. Join me as I share with you the misery of my traumatic experiences in lawn care! (more…)

Most new homeowners are set on doing things themselves and I was no exception. I soon found out that many projects are too large, time consuming, complicated, or require specific skills for someone like me to do. (more…)